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NEW YORK \u2014<\/p>\nThe US says it\u2019ll crack down on countries doing business with Iran. Who\u2019s buying Iranian oil?<\/p>\n
NEW YORK \u2014<\/p>\n
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday vowed an \u201ceconomic D-Day\u201d for countries that buy oil from Iran. Experts say that means one country in particular: China.<\/p>\n
Bessent didn\u2019t name China on Monday, but he left little room for doubt.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe find that the best way to engage with countries is through quiet diplomacy, and we are level-setting with every country to tell them our expectations,\u201d Bessent said on Monday. \u201cWe know who they are. They know who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
But while Bessent\u2019s threat could put China front and center, the repercussions could reach across the world \u2013 even for American consumers, who could find their own energy costs rising as a result.<\/p>\n
Tehran likely shipped $3.9 and $4.2 billion worth of oil in September 2025, one analysis found; China, the world\u2019s largest energy consumer, buys the vast majority.<\/p>\n
\u201cChinese purchases account for roughly 90 percent of Iran\u2019s exported oil, providing tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue that supports Iran\u2019s government budget and military activities,\u201d the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s announcement was a \u201cwarning shot,\u201d Bessent said. While some entities and individuals were sanctioned, he did not announce broad measures aimed at any specific nations.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said: \u201cSanctions and pressure tactics do not help in resolving issues. They will only lead to escalation that serves no one\u2019s interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
During a regular press briefing, Lin also hinted that China could take its own measures: \u201cChina is closely following relevant developments and will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its own rights and interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thirty-eight percent of China\u2019s oil and 23% of its liquefied natural gas transits through the Strait of Hormuz, a focal point of the Iran war, according to a Nomura report in April.<\/p>\n
China has already reduced its Iranian oil intake. Its Iranian crude imports averaged around 1.4 million barrels per day before the war but have fallen to around 700,000 in recent months due to lower refinery runs and drawdowns from onshore inventories, according to Emma Li at energy analytics firm Vortexa.<\/p>\n
\u201cA complete halt (in imports of Iranian crude) would probably have a limited immediate impact on China\u2019s overall oil security, because imports from Iran have already fallen substantially and China still holds relatively large crude inventories,\u201d Tianyue Hu, an analyst at energy intelligence firm Rystad, said.<\/p>\n
But new sanctions could further erode the Trump administration\u2019s rocky relationship with China. The two nations were in a blistering trade war last year at the height of President Donald Trump\u2019s tariff rollout. And they recently revived a tit-for-tat exchange of sanctions.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina, by far, is the most impactful one if you really wanted to make a dent in Iran\u2019s ability to continue to finance their activities,\u201d Daniel Tannebaum, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, previously told CNN.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the first time the United States has threatened sanctions on Iranian trade partners.<\/p>\n
India once was a major importer of Iranian oil. The two maintained a $1.1 billion trade relationship between April and December 2025 for goods like rice and sugar, but India stopped importing Iranian oil in 2019 due to U.S. sanctions. (India bought Iranian oil in April of this year amid an energy crisis.)<\/p>\n
Muddy waters<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to determine how much U.S. sanctions could impact China or any other countries that depend on Iranian oil.<\/p>\n
Wall Street analysts haven\u2019t even been able to get a straight answer on how much oil is leaving the Strait of Hormuz. While Energy Secretary Chris Wright asserted that the strait is open and oil is flowing, Iran says the opposite. And third-party ship-tracking data showed about half the amount Wright claimed.<\/p>\n
Then there are shadow fleets, used often by countries under sanctions. These oil tankers hide their owners, origins and destinations, making them hard to track. Ship tracking platform Kpler said this month that shadow transit made up around 50% strait traffic in recent weeks, up from around 12.5% a month ago.<\/p>\n
But the lack of oil flows affects everybody. Large oil reserves kept the world from entering a major oil shortage when the war with Iran started in February.<\/p>\n
And periodic ceasefires during the war sent global oil prices lower \u2013 only to rise again whenever those agreements have lapsed or run out.<\/p>\n
American consumers have already seen the effects of higher oil prices because of the war. The current national average price for gas is $4.10 a gallon, compared to last year\u2019s average of $3.15, according to AAA.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one is above the reach of U.S. sanctions,\u201d Bessent said Monday. But he sidestepped announcing end dates for any decisions. And Chinese leader Xi Jinping is expected to visit the U.S. next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to set timelines, but we do not have infinite patience here,\u201d Bessent said.<\/p>\n
CNN\u2019s Simone McCarthy, Jennifer Hansler, Adam Cancryn, Sylvie Zhuang and David Goldman contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US says it\u2019ll crack down on countries doing business with Iran. Who\u2019s buying Iranian oil? NEW YORK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[16878,4760,262,1555,648,138,9717,34,72669,6475,196,4148,13855,5592,681,213,72670,14067,1219,101,392,1142],"class_list":["post-264307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-april","tag-bessent","tag-china","tag-country","tag-defense","tag-india","tag-interest","tag-iran","tag-iran-business","tag-iran-sanctions","tag-iran-war","tag-iran-war-updates","tag-iranian-oil","tag-ldnd","tag-monday","tag-oil","tag-recent-month","tag-sanction","tag-strait","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-trump","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117157024684736406","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}